Picacio has been designing covers for almost 10 years, starting with the 30th anniversary edition of Michael Moorcock's "Behold the Man." He got the job when an editor at Mojo Press ran across "Words and Pictures," a comic book Picacio self-published with Fernando Ramirez.
The editor asked Picacio to come up with a cover illustration, but Picacio suggested something much more involved. He asked if he could design every aspect of the book's look.
"They agreed, and I had my first gig — cover, interior illustrations, down to the typesetting itself," he recalled. "(It was) a huge crash course in how to think about the book as a whole object and not just the cover."
It was a tough job, but by the end of it, he knew he had ventured down a new career path.
"I probably bit off more than I could chew, and I was hooked when I got that first book-cover job. I've never stopped," he said. "I liked the feeling of being part of a chain of creation."
That unnamed editor at Mojo Press is, of course, Rick Klaw, for whom Picacio did the cover illustration for his book Geek Confidential. But I guess the Express-News thought mentioning the gorilla-obsessed Klaw by name would somehow debase the article. Who knows? I'd rather hear Klaw's thoughts on Picacio than Lou Anders', but that's just me.
In any event, Picacio's damn talented, and sexy too. Makes me all the more depressed I failed in my efforts to convince Nebraska to get him to illustrate the cover of my book. I just hope he doesn't lie awake at night, fretting about that one cover that got away...
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